Synopsis

Master assassin Shayla Carver has killed many times. That's what assassins do, nothing to lose sleep over, but this mission is different.

She's never killed a whole planet before.

In a time when Earth is little more than a legend, life is dangerous for wayward colonies. Everyone fears the Emperor’s power to order a Cleansing, the burning of all traces of civilization from the face of a planet. Shayla's own home world was Cleansed, and now, years later, she's ready to exact payment in kind.

But her meticulous planning didn't prepare her for living undercover amongst some of the two billion people she's about to slaughter. Ordinary people. Not the strutting Imperials readily dismissed as legitimate targets or collateral damage. Then there's the Emperor himself. An ordinary man with troubles and dreams of his own.

Did this man really order the slaughter of innocents?

Can she?

Now she's starting to lose sleep.

Buy the eBook

Your price

$5.14 CAD

You'll see how many points you'll earn before checking out. We'll award them after completing your purchase.

A tense and action-packed read

In Ghosts of Innocence, Ian S. Bott brings us aboard Imperial starhopper Chantry Bay, inbound to the Imperial seat of government, moments before its unscheduled, flaming entry into planetary atmosphere draws all eyes away from the covert insertion through the defenses of Shayla Carver, an assassin aimed at the best-protected target of all: Emperor Julian Flavio Skamensis. Sent off-course with a damaged suit, Shayla has an unenviable slog through jungle, under the watchful eyes of a security force on full alert, to reach her rendezvous with the local Insurrection and hit the fast-closing time-window that offers her only hope of infiltrating the Emperor’s heavily fortressed compound.
Ghosts of Innocence opens with a deadly starship crash, and the heavy menace of Imperial security hemming the storyline on all sides. The world-building is detailed and intricate, with fascinating threads drawn from many cultures to draw you in. The tension is a constant through the book, expertly evoked by small touches in every scene, and spiked by Shayla’s flashbacks and gut-wrenching nightmares. Ian S. Bott has done a great job of creating a character who is impossible not to relate to, and whose self-doubt will strike resonances in everyone. Shayla makes a strong protagonist, and even if her streak of luck seems incredible at times, you’ll forget it at the next page and the next challenge.